bound with you
by girlmeetsangst
Summary: in which riley and farkle really mess up big time but somehow trick themselves into trying to figure it all out. nothing can be too bad when their friends are with them, right? or, oops! riley's pregnant!
1. prologue

Life always had a funny way of creeping up on Riley Matthews. The say that life is what happens when you're busy making other plans and right now, on the floor of her bathroom with tear stained cheeks, was the first time she ever realized what that meant. Right now, right here, she held her future in her trembling hands. The scary part, however, was that it wasn't a high school or college diploma. It wasn't a letter of recognition or her first published news article. It was a pregnancy test with a small, pink '+' on it, just staring back at her. She had been so careful. They both had been. They had pulled out all of the stops to make sure something like this didn't happen. But it had. And it would continue happening to them until eighteen years and nine months from this very moment. The finality of this small symbol on this plastic stick crushed her lungs and took her breath away. The tears started to form again but she stopped herself before she started spiraling out of control again. Instead, she barged out of her bathroom to face the blonde sitting on the bay window, weary eyes and small smile on full display.

"How'd it go in there, honey?" Maya's voice was a whisper even though they were the only two at home.

Now Riley was letting herself cry, she was letting herself cry hard and loud, her breaths coming out deep and short. Maya stood up and circled her in as tight of a hug that she could muster up, hugs as close as these were reserved for times as tough as the one Riley had just fallen into.

As they stood there, the only sound being Riley's heavy hand, a vibration erupted in between them, causing them to jump apart from one another. Riley looked down at her phone and saw a message from the one person she had nothing but everything to say to.

 **farkley**

are we still on for tonight? my parents are out of town ;)

She laughed at his absurdness. He always had a way of making her smile without even trying.

Before replying, she looked back up at Maya, "Peaches?"

"Riles?"

She sighed and looked back down at the stick, "What am I going to do?"

Maya shot her a smile that told her everything she needed to know, "You're going to tell Farkle. And he's going to be shocked but he'll be okay. You both will be. Then you will come home to me and we'll probably cry some more but I'll remind you that you have me. You will always have me," she paused and smiled, poking her best friend's stomach, "So will whoever that is going to be. They will always have me."

Riley tilted her head and wiped her eyes, smiling at her best friend, "Thunder."

Joining Riley's hand in the air, Maya finished their affirmation, "Lightening. Now go get 'em, tiger."

Riley climbed out of the bay window and turned around to look at Maya, "I already did that's how I got into this mess in the first place."

"Don't be gross. Now get out of here you're bothering me."

She smiled in response, "I love you, Peaches."

Maya sat down on the bay window, her legs crossed and her hands folded behind her head, "I know you do, honey."

 **riles**

on my way lover boy

 **farkley**

good, I have a surprise

Riley stopped dead in her tracks before replying.

 **riles**

yeah. so do i


	2. ch i

The walk to Farkle's house felt as though it was the longest walk she had ever been on, but somehow it wasn't long enough. She hadn't even told her parents yet. No one besides Maya knew that this was happening to her, she herself barely had had anytime to process the information and make decisions. Her mind was a thunderstorm the whole way through the city, up the elevator, and into his room, only to be calmed when he welcomed her into one of his signature bear hugs.

"Hey Riles," he breathed into her hair and kissed her forehead, "Do you want to see my surprise for you?"

She let go of him, holding back tears she didn't realize were desperate to escape, "Of course! Lay it on me."

He smiled at her and grabbed her hand, leading her to sit on his bed as he stood before her. "Are you ready for this?"

She giggled, "Yes, just show me weirdo."

He made a face at her, over exaggerating his disbelief, "Are you sure you're ready? Because I'm not sure you are. This is one of hell of a surprise."

She tried to forget that her surprise is without a doubt magnitudes bigger than his, she just wanted to be with Farkle for one last moment before things change. Before they change. "Well I guess if you're doubting me, I can just leave," she began to get up before Farkle threw her back on the bed and hovered over her, "Oh you're not going anywhere."

He smirked at her as he got up and ran to his closet, returning with his hands behind his back and a big smile on his face, "Are you _sure_ you're ready Matthews?"

Rolling her eyes, she replied, "Yes! Now just show me, you know how impatient I am."

He wiggled his eyebrows at her, "Oh yes, boy do I know."

She scoffed at his insinuation. Though she'd be lying if she had said he was wrong, but that's not what she came over here to discuss.

" _Anyways_ , are you ready for the best news of your entire life?"

" _YES_ now just show me before I grow some gray hair!"

And then he showed her. In his hands was a wooden frame with a piece of paper in it, a piece of paper with her name, and the words "congratulations" and "star" on it. She was speechless, her watery eyes taking their sweet time taking it all in before they allowed her to look back up at her boyfriend's lip in between his teeth as he stared expectantly back at her.

"So, do you like it?" He asked as he teetered back and forth, hands around his back and a nervous demeanor he hadn't had around her since middle school.

She didn't answer, instead she ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him as tight as possible, resting her ear on his heart beat.

"I can't believe you bought me a star," she whispered as he hugged her back.

"Well, they wouldn't let me buy pluto so this is the best I could do."

She giggled and stepped back from him, wiping her eyes and tilting her head at him, how was supposed to tell him now? How was she supposed to deliver the news that was going to ruin his life to him right after he did something so randomly special and beautiful for her. She's about to ruin his life in two words and she can't bring herself to it. He has given her the best two years of her life, and with college coming around this upcoming fall, she had no right to take his future away from him. She owed him at least that - she owed him that after everything he has done for her.

Once her eyes were dried and she had managed to push all of her thoughts to the side, she began to speak. "So, what's on the agenda for tonight?" She walked closer to him and grabbed him by the belt loops, "Heard the parents were out of town?" She began to kiss the part of his neck she knew drove him wild.

He hummed in response, resting his hands on her hips and guiding her back against the bed. Once they had both fallen, he attached his lips to hers and their bodies sang. He still wondered how he had gotten so lucky to call her his. He still wondered how he had gotten so lucky to get to be so close to her and know her in every single way possible. All of the ways no one got to see, and all of the ways she tried her best to hide but he saw anyways. He always saw right through her. Which is how he knew she was avoiding something.

"So," kiss, "What," kiss, "Was," kiss, "Riley stop trying to make out with me I'm talking," kiss, "This is really hot and all but," kiss, "I'm, kiss, "Speaking."

She threw her head back and rested herself upon her forearms, groaning, "You're such a buzzkill."

He smiled sweetly at her, "I love you too darling."

She shot back a sarcastic smile as he sat up and in front of her.

"So, what was the surprise you had for me? I know it isn't," he pauses and motions to her laying on his bed, " _this_ because this happens almost every time. So, no surprise here."

Her head begins storming again. She really thought that she could distract him with sex. It works pretty much every other time, but of course the one time she actually needs time to rethink telling him something, he catches her. She was seriously starting to think that life was out to get her.

"Oh, that? That was nothing," she tried her best to be convincingly careless, but that had never been her thing.

He raised her eyebrows at her, "Oh yeah? Well if it was nothing then why don't you just tell me?"

"Let's do that kissing thing again, we're really good at that."

She was now straddling him and trying to kiss him, but he held her face in his hands instead. If he only knew he was holding an entire hurricane in his palms.

"You're deflecting, Riles," his voice was calm and concerned, eyebrows furrowed and blue eyes soothing, "What aren't you telling me?"  
Her mouth had suddenly gone dry and the hurricane in her head had turned into a tornado and then an earthquake and now she was back to full on monsoon. She could barely say it out loud to herself, she couldn't tell him. There was no way. She wasn't going to be the reason that his life was ruined. Because then he would resent her. He would resent her and the baby and then their whole life would be nothing but yelling and sleeping in separate rooms and trading the kid back and forth and she wasn't going to let that happen. He was going to be happy.

"Riles," his voice almost sounded broken, "please."

She rested her head against his hand, kissing it and holding it in her hand. She closed her eyes so he couldn't see the tears forming. His happiness was what mattered, she reminded herself.

"I can't do this anymore, Farkle." The words came out like embers flying off a fire; sure to burn.

His hands dropped faster than she hoped they would and before she could even open her eyes, he was pacing and rubbing the back of his neck.

"What do you mean you can't do this anymore? Can't do what? Love me? Where is this coming from? Less than five minutes ago you were in my arms and kissing me and now you're, you're breaking up with me? What the hell is happening, Riley?" His voice had started out small and weary but had crescendoed into heart stopping and Earth shattering. Why couldn't he see that she was doing this for him? Why couldn't he see that this was _destroying_ her?

She couldn't look at him, "It's not, it's not like that, Farkle."

He sat on the bed in front of her, urgently grabbing her face and looking into her glazed over eyes, "Then what is it like, Riley? What has made you change your mind about me so quickly?" His voice started to break as his hands moved from her face to her hands, "What did I do wrong?"

She stood up as quickly as she could and began walking to his door, leaving the words "You didn't do anything wrong", behind her as she drifted away.

But, he had always been known to ground her. With his hands around hers, he spun her around so she was looking at him again. "Just give me an explanation, Riles. You owe me that. Two years and a lifetime of friendship and you think I'm just going to let you go as quickly as the turn of a handle? You know me better than that."

She shook her hands out of his grasps, her voice growing stronger out of frustration and sadness, "Can't you see that I'm doing this for you Farkle? I'm only going to hold you back. I can't be with you if it means you're just going to resent me, I can't deal with you resenting me."

He scoffed with disbelief, his hands flying into his hair as he turned around and sighed before facing her again, "How the hell is you walking out of my life going to let me not resent you? How is you breaking my heart going to make me not resent you?" He paused, this time being the one to look away, "Please don't leave."

She sighed and looked down at her hands, "You'll thank me for this later," she dropped to a whisper, "Trust me."

He rested his hand on his hip and looked at the ceiling, scoffing, "You know what, Riley? I don't trust you. You know why? Because I know you," He was closer now, and her heart stopped, "And because I know you, I know that you're not telling me the whole story. I know you love me and I know that the type of love you give out isn't the kind that you can just switch off and on whenever you please," She was now pressed between his body and the wall behind her, the cold plaster hitting her back, "Your love, or more specifically, the love we have, is the kind that takes years to build and even longer to tear down. Something is wrong and you think I can't handle it. You think that you can deal with it on your own and you don't want to bother me with it. Well guess what, Riley Matthews? I'm in it for the long run. I'm in it until you're _actually_ sick of me. But I know that's not today. So please, just tell me what the hell this is really about, I can help you. I promise."

She was speechless, lost in his eyes and his affirmations. He was so sure, and she was so weary. _He's only saying this because he doesn't know_ , she reminds herself. _He's only saying this because he doesn't know you're carrying his child_.

Suddenly, the storm has calmed. _His child_. Whoever she has inside of her is going to be his child. Farkle would never abandon his child, his own blood? Right? She thinks back to what Maya said, they have her. He'll be shocked but he'll be okay. _He'll be okay_. They'll be okay.

The storm may have ceased but her mouth was still dry with all of the words she hadn't said.

"Please, Riley." Her hands were in his now and he kissed every one of her knuckles, trying to make her feel more at ease.

She looked at him, eyes wide with hope. "Don't leave." she spoke without realizing how broken she would sound.

"Never."

She smiled at him weakly and led him to his bed, sitting him down beside her. Her eyes began to water but she knew she had to do this. If not for her, for him. And if not for him, for the little bean growing inside of her as they sat there breathing in each other's air and unspoken thoughts.

"Ready?"

He nodded slowly.

She grabbed his hand and placed it on her lower stomach, and through watery eyes and a broken voice she said the words out loud for the first time since she found out.

"I'm pregnant."


	3. ch ii

He had to be shaken awake. Riley literally had to kneel on the ground and shake him awake. She had just told him the most important news of his entire life and all he could do was faint. Typical.

"Farkle, honey? Please wake up, I need you. Please get up off the floor so we can discuss this. Please, wake up." She was on the verge of tears, she may have only been approximately four weeks in, she wasn't for sure though, she still hadn't gone to a doctor, but her emotions were already starting to get the best of her. Or maybe it was just exhaustion. Or maybe it was both.

She continued shaking him, "Farkle, _we_ need you, please get up off of the ground."

Suddenly, he had started stir and Riley was sweeping him up into her arms, crying into his shoulder.

He chuckled and held her tighter than ever before, "Jesus Christ, how long was I out?"

She giggled through her tears and leaned back to look him in the eyes, "How are you feeling?" Her voice had grown scared. His heart tensed up at the idea that he could possibly ever scare her.

Wrapping her back up in his arms, holding her in his lap, he kissed her forehead and whispered, "I'm not going anywhere."

They laid on Farkle's bed, staring at the artificial stars and holding hands. Pretending nothing was changing. Pretending that they weren't petrified.

"So like," Farkle began, "just _how_ pregnant are you? Like, really pregnant? Or just a little pregnant?"

She turned her head to face him, giving him a look that was a mix between confusion, annoyance, and amusement, "What the hell did you just say?" She was trying her best not to laugh at his ignorance on the subject.

Sighing, his old body shifted to face her, "When do we get to know if it's a boy or girl? When do I get to name it? When do I get to feel the baby kick?" His face was lit up in a way she would have sworn was saved for laboratories.

She turned on her body so they were now facing each other, giant grins plastered on their faces. If she could just stay like this, her, Farkle, and the bean protected from everything and everyone she would. This was the fun part. This was when it was all giggles and discoveries and excitement. If she could hold onto this part forever she would. Because she knew it wasn't going to last for long.

"First of all," she began to speak between her laughs at her excitable boyfriend, "That won't be for like, awhile. I'm only four weeks along, you've got another eight months of this.

Second of all, when do _YOU_ get to name it? What are you on? Let me remind you that the production of this end product wasn't the only partner job required in raising a child. This is a group effort.

And third of all, you'll feel the baby kick when it's bigger than a lima bean. It barely even exists right now."

Instead of responding to her, he just rests his hand on her stomach and smiles a small smile that she could tell wasn't meant for her. It was meant for whoever would come of the bundle of cells growing inside of her.

His voice was barely above a whisper when he finally spoke, "I hope it's a girl."

She matched his tone, "What?"

"I hope it's a girl. I hope she's just like you. I hope she smiles just like you do and I hope that she has your desire to make people happy. The only thing that could make my life better is having another one of you running around all over the place."

Riley looked at him with the most loving eyes anyone had ever seen or will ever see again. She was so lucky to be in this mess with him. No one else could make this tragic turn of events feel like a dream.

Before she could speak up, he was looking right into her eyes and continuing his monologue, "Riley Matthews. I love you. I am so lucky to get to be with you and I'm even luckier that someone who is just like you gets to walk around with my genes and my last name. This is going to be so hard and we will want to kill each other, more so you at me than anything else of course," this made her laugh, "But we will get through this. I'm yours and you're mine and now we have something to share. I didn't realize it was possible to love anything more than I loved you but it turns out I was wrong. I can love a bundle of cells with everything in my being times a million and that terrifies me. But I know it's going to be ok because it's you. It's always been you and it will continue to be you no matter what happens. I love you, Riley."

She was tearing up again and she almost hated herself for being so emotional but she let this one slide, understanding that it wasn't the pregnancy brain and was actually just her emotional response to being loved and being in love.

Wiping her eyes and smiling slightly, she replied, "I love you too."

And then he kissed her but it wasn't a normal kiss. There was less fire and more smoke. They relished in the feeling of being so complete, they relished the feeling of being safe. Nothing could stop them or hurt them or break them. They had each other.

"Farkle,"

He dreamily sighed, "Yes?"

"We need to go and talk to Maya."

Suddenly his eyes are wide with fear, "Do we have to? She's going to hurt me, Riley, and you know how much I hate being hurt."

"She's not going to hurt you," she laughed, even if she didn't believe herself, "And even if she does, which she won't," she will, "It's a small price to pay for everything she has done and will inevitably keep doing for us. She is our future child's Godmother after all."

"Woah what? Shouldn't we discuss this first? The thing doesn't even have a name yet, or a body for that matter, and we're already assigning Godparents?"

She gives him a pointed look, "Who else would do it? We don't have that many other friends, Farkle."

"Ok you're right."

She smiles at him sideways, just like she always does, "Aren't I always?"

He mocks her head tilt, "Yes of course dear, that's why I'm the genius in the relationship."

Her face scrunches up a little bit to feign amusement until she punches Farkle off of the bed with her signature "Boom!"

From the floor, he speaks, "Alright looks like we're going to see Maya."


	4. ch iii

The two stood outside of Maya's bedroom door, hand in hand, as Farkle begged to do this later. "Riley, please, I don't want her to hurt me. She's going to hurt me and you know it!"

She turned to him and sighed, "Farkle. We've been over this. She won't hurt you. She's going to be too worried about me to even look at you. Now can we _please_ just go inside? We've been standing here for _fifteen_ minutes."

Scoffing in defeat, he slowly opened the door and swung it open, not at all expecting to see what they saw. Not at all expecting, or wanting, to see it at all ever in their life. When the door opened they were met with a Lucas' bareback angled on top of a very naked Maya on her bed.

Farkle and Riley screamed in unison as they covered each other's eyes, one of Farkle's hands even going to Riley's stomach. You could never be too careful. Their future child didn't deserve this so early on.

"JESUS CHRIST!" Lucas yells as he rolls off of Maya and covers the top sheet over top of them. "What are you two doing here? Ever heard of knocking you WEIRDOS?" He yells through the sheet.

Riley steps into the room and starts picking up their discarded clothing items, throwing them onto the bed and swiftly turning around, "Change, you hooligans. I have very important matters to discuss with Ms. Hart and clothing should probably be involved. And Lucas, when have any of us ever knocked in the history of our friendship? Ever heard of LOCKING THE DOOR you big WEIRDO?"

"I cannot believe I just saw Maya's nipple." Farkle mumbled to himself in a haze, still covering his eyes.

Annoyed, Riley elbows him in the ribs.

" _Ouch_ , Riley! I'm not happy about it, do you not see how traumatized I am right now? I'm weak. Hold me," and then he's on the floor and Riley has zero plans of picking him up.

Once everyone was fully clothed for the first time in far too long, Lucas speaks up, "So what are you two even doing here anyways, what are these 'very important matters', Riley?"

She walks over to the edge of the bed, next to Maya, "Oh you know, just things."

Lucas plops down on the other side of Riley, sandwiching her between himself and Maya, "What kind of 'things'?" He nudges her shoulder, "C'mon Riley, when have we ever not told each other everything?"

She sighed and looked down her hands, only to see Maya's come into view, taking Riley's in her own, "You don't have to tell him, Riles. This is new for everyone."

Suddenly the tone has changed and Lucas is realizing that maybe this isn't all fun and games, "Is it really that serious?"

Despite his and Riley's history, if you could even call half of a date and a weird love triangle a 'history', he never stopped caring about Riley. He's always wanted to take care of her, like a brother from her same sunshine-y family.

Riley looked up at Lucas with tear filled eyes, "Lucas, I'm scared."

Without saying another word, Lucas took her in his arms and stroked her hair, "It's ok. Maya and I are here. We're here for you, Riley. Please just tell me what's wrong. I'm as strong as a horse and can protect you from anything, just let me."

She pulled back from his embrace and looked him in the eyes through her tear filled ones, "I'm pregnant."

And then, without a skip of a beat, Lucas was standing and preparing to charge toward Farkle, who was still passed out cold on the floor. But, before he could go full on Texas Lucas, Maya holds him back.

"Woah there Ranger Rick, let's take a breather shall we?"

He's practically steaming from the ears, "FARKLE, MR GENIUS, MADE THE STUPID MISTAKE OF GETTING RILEY PREGNANT! I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE A BREATHER UNTIL HE CAN'T WALK."

Maya tried to ignore how hot Texas Lucas is and focus on the fact that her boyfriend was actually about to murder her best friend's baby daddy. "Alright yes, honey, I'm aware of that. Incredibly aware, actually, but if you kill Farkle, which you shouldn't because he's your best friend, remember, then she'll be worse off than she was when she got here. You don't need to make her a widow at age 18, ok? So, let's just take a seat and calm down. How does that sound?"

Lucas huffed but sat down anyways.

"Perfect, now that I've got your crazy ass seated and not about to kill one of our best friends, I have some business to take care of, ok?" And then she was straddling Farkle and smacking his chest until he woke up from his haze. "WHAT," smack, "THE," smack, "HELL," smack, "IS," smack, "WRONG," smack, "WITH," smack, "YOU?"

Farkle pushed Maya off of him and scrambled against the door, "Well right now I'm wondering why the hell I trusted Riley when she said you wouldn't hurt me."

Maya grabbed Farkle's collar and pulled him to her.

"Hey that's our thing!" Lucas yelled from the background.

Sighing, Maya yells behind her, "Not now, Huckleberry!" But with her attention turned back to Farkle, she continued screaming, "Of _course_ I was going to hurt you! You knocked up my best friend her senior year of high school! What were you thinking?"

"Well at the time I was probably thinking something along the lines of 'wow I'm having a really good time, me and Riley should do this more often,'" He said, trying to lighten the mood.

Maya then proceeded to throw him to the floor, "You know what's not a good time? Watching my best friend cry in my arms because her life is ruined. That's the last thing that comes to mind when I think of a 'good time'."

Scrambling to stand, Farkle looks at Riley, "Is that true?" He whispers, sadness staining his speech.

Fiddling with her bracelets and not making eye contact, she shrugs it off, "Pfft, maybe just a little bit."

Farkle moves to the bed and wedges himself between her and Lucas, facing her and grabbing her hands, "Riley, were you afraid of telling me?"

Lucas is now standing next to Maya, watching this train wreck happen, "Of course she was scared, man, she's eighteen and pregnant. Everything is scary. We love our girls more than anything," he snaked his hand around Maya's waist at that point, "But if I were Riley, I'd be scared too. I mean, us guys don't have to deal with this. We can leave," and Maya elbowed him in the rib cage at _that_ point, "Ow, I wasn't finished. Anyway, we can leave. Not that we should or that you ever would. Because I mean, c'mon, you love Riley more than anything, but when it comes to parenting. We're the leavers. They're the stayers. They have to be there for at least nine months whereas we can leave in the matter of minutes. I'd be scared too."

Farkle turned his attention back to Riley, "Riley, I'm not going anywhere."

"I know."

"Please don't be afraid of me."

She rests a hand on his face, "Of course I'm not afraid of you. I'm afraid of the part of you that we have to take care of for the next eighteen years. That's what I'm afraid of."

Lucas laughs, "Yeah that's pretty scary."

Everyone stops to stare at him and then Maya speaks, "Honestly Lucas, why are you like this?"

"Don't look at me."

Riley turns back to Farkle, "Anyways, I know you're not going anywhere. You've made that perfectly clear. But you can't blame a girl for being scared, can you?"

"No," he shakes his head, "I guess I can't."

Riley turns and rests her head on his shoulder and looks up at her best friends standing in front of her, "So like, are we just going to ignore the fact that me and Farkle and our unborn child literally just walked in on the two of you having sex?"

Maya scratches the back of her neck and nervously says, "You know I was hoping we could just forget about that if that would be alright with you."

Rapidly nodding his head, Farkle agrees with Maya, "Yes that it is completely alright with me I'm already repressing the memory."

Then the four of them laugh together, as if nothing had changed, until Riley drops a truth bomb on them: "Just so you know, it's all fun and games until someone gets pregnant. Just remember that."

Lucas eyes grow wide and walks over to Riley, grabbing her by the arm, "And on that note I just remembered that Farkle and I have a very important meeting to get to that is far away from here and this conversation, right, Farkle?"

Face scrunched up in confusion Farkle begins to speak, "No I actually have no idea what you're tal-"

"Alright bye girls, see you later!"

"What the hell, Lucas? This is _my_ room," Maya scoffs at him.

"Bye now."

And then Lucas pushes them out into the hall and slams the door in their faces.


	5. ch iv

"Dude, what the hell was that all about? I feel like I should be consoling Riley or like, scheduling doctors appointments or something not having a handy dandy conversation with you. Honestly what could be more important than this right now?" Farkle says as Lucas shuts the door behind them, spinning around to face his best friend.

Without saying a word, Lucas takes out his wallet, and then a folded up, blank check.

"Why do you have a check in your wallet? What kind of 18 year old has checks in 2018, period?"

Lucas doesn't say anything in response until he's done scribbling stuff down onto the slip of paper and handing it to Farkle.

A look of inquisition spread across of Farkle's face as he looked down at the check that Lucas had just handed him.

"Lucas, what is this?"

The mood in the hall had suddenly shifted from innocent confusion to complex seriousness. Farkle's face was blank, yet stern, as he looked to his best friend waiting for an explanation as to why he had handed him a check for more money than Farkle ever thought Lucas had on hand.

"Consider it an option contract."

"A what now?"

Sighing, Lucas continued, "An option contract is an agreement between a buyer and seller that gives the purchaser of the option the right to buy or sell a particular asset at a later date at an agreed upon price. Options contracts are often used in securities, commodities, and real estate transactions, but in this case they're used between me and you."

"Well then, what am I selling?"

"Actually," Lucas paused, "It's who you're not selling out."

Farkle's head felt like it was growing smaller the second, "Lucas, what the hell are you talking about?"

"By taking this money, you are agreeing not to leave Riley, no matter what. And I know that this check is probably just a penny in a bucket to you, but it's more than that. It's the agreement between me and you to protect her. My cousin, Bailey, got pregnant when she was in high school and her boyfriend was there for her for all of the pregnancy, but then when she was in labor, he skipped town. I know that you're a good kid and would never do that, but you have so much in life going for you with that whole freak genius thing you have going on, and I'm afraid that you're going to realize what you're missing out on and leave Riley. And I'm afraid that she would let you, because she loves you more than anything. Just, please. Don't leave her, Minkus."

Mouth dry and heart beating a mile a minute, all Farkle could do was stare back at Lucas. He wasn't sure if what he was feeling was anger or sadness or somewhere in between, but all he knew was that he didn't regret tearing that check into a hundred pieces on the floor.

"I would never leave Riley or our family. Not now, not in five years, not ever. No matter the circumstances. I know you mean well, Lucas, but you clearly don't know me at all if you would ever think for a second that I would put myself before Riley. Riley has gone before everyone else for the past ten years and the fact that I'm going to be a father is not changing that. It sucks that me and Riley are going to miss out on some normal teen things but her and I have never been normal teens, and there was never a doubt in my mind that we were going to be even weirder adults so we're probably not missing out on much anyway. Dude, you know you're my best friend but right now I need you to stop being Riley's weird older brother figure and I need you to start being _my_ weird older brother figure. Because I have no idea what I'm doing besides the fact that I'm going to be by Riley through every bit of it."

Then, all of a sudden, he heard sniffling.

"Dude, are you crying?" he asked Lucas with a chuckle.

"No, but I sure am."

He whipped around and saw Riley standing in the doorway with a big, wet smile spread across her face.

His face turned up in a half smile and he started blushing as she walked to meet him.

"You really meant all of that?" She asked as he grabbed her face and wiped away her tears with his thumbs.

He smiled the smile that only showed up when she came around, "Of course I did," he said, voice soft, "You know I'd do anything for you, Riley. Why would that stop now?"

She sniffed some more and rested her head against his chest, "No, I guess not."

"You're so smart," he cooed at her with a bright smile as he kissed her forehead.

"Get a room!" Lucas and Maya feigned disgust from her bedroom door.

Riley and Farkle laughed at their best friends' disgusted faces, "Says you two! Don't even try to pretend that we didn't just walk in on you two getting nastay."

At Farkle's lame attempt to roast the couple, everyone just stared and him blankly and cringed in unison.

"Honey, I love you, but _please_ never say that again."

"Yep, right, I realized it was a mistake as soon as it left my mouth."

"Yeah, bud," Lucas said between laughs, "We all did."


	6. ch v

She knows she needs to tell her parents, she knows that she won't be able to hide it much longer. But she also knows that right now she's fine. Just her, Farkle, and the bean. It's all fine and she doesn't want to add anything else into the equation that's going to make everything worse.

However, another thing she knows is that if her dad doesn't throw that reuben away right this second, she is actually going to vomit all over their family picnic.

Topanga must have noticed that Riley was nauseous, because she began questioning her daughter at the sight of her paling face, "Riley? Are you ok, honey?"

Snapping back into reality, Riley smiled at her mom, "Yeah, uh, I'm just a little tired."

Her mom let the topic rest, but she gave Riley a knowing look, letting her know that she wasn't convinced.

Riley was laying under a tree in Central Park after her family had finished lunch. Topanga was sitting on the bench talking to an old woman that was feeding some birds, and Auggie and Cory were off doing who knows what so she decided to have some peace and quiet. Unfortunately that never lasts long for her, and she had almost forgotten that when her mother plopped down against the tree trunk right beside her.

"Hey mom," she greeted softly without looking up from her book.

Topanga didn't say anything at first, but then she said something that actually made Riley want to vomit. And it wasn't the morning sickness this time, it was complete shock and embarrassment, "So how far along are you?"

The air around them grew still as Riley looked at her mom, eyes wide and heart stopped.

When Riley didn't answer, Topanga sighed heavily and looked up at the sky, "Ok, fine. Don't tell me. But I booked you an appointment with my OBGYN tomorrow. Her name is Dr. Cathy Richards and she already knows you're pregnant so you don't have to hide it from her and act naive. And no, before you freak out, your dad doesn't know,"

Riley let out a breath she had no idea she was holding in.

"Yet," Topanga continued, "You're going to have to tell him sooner than later. But right now, you need to focus on telling me." She looked back at Riley with a stoic look on her face, "Riley, why didn't you tell me?'

Before Riley could stop herself, she was crying harder than ever before.

So they sat and held each other, Topanga smoothing Riley's hair and kissing her forehead, and Riley balling her fist into her mother's shirt as if she was still a first grader who fell too hard on the black top. She's overwhelmed with nostalgia as she breathes in the scent of her mother's perfume, she closes her eyes tight and prays that this is all a dream and that she will be ok.

Through choked sobs and wet eyes, Riley choked out, "Mommy?"

"Yes baby?" Topanga hummed into her hair as she her and her daughter rocked back and forth.

"I'm so, so, sorry."

The rocking stopped and Topanga held Riley out in front of her, "Don't apologize. I'm furious that this is happening _to_ you but I'm not furious _at_ you. We're going to do everything we can to make sure that you, Farkle, and whoever that little person is going to be are going to be ok, because, believe it or not, you are going to be ok. I promise you that."

"How did you know?"

"Well, first of all, I've been pregnant twice so I know what it's like. Second of all, once I got suspicious I may or may not have interrogated Maya until she came clean."

This new piece of information made the mood between the two of them completely change, Riley was now standing up and pacing, arms crossed, with an incredulous look on her face.

"She _TOLD_ you?"

Trying desperately to meet her daughter's height, she stood up to look her in the face, "Riley. If she hadn't told me you wouldn't be getting the support and not to mention _medical_ care that you need. You're too stubborn to say anything and believe it or not, you wouldn't be able to hide it for very long anyway! You're pregnant, Riley, not hiding a hamster in your room. There's a human growing inside of you. You have to let us help you. Don't be mad at Maya, she did the right thing."

"Why didn't you just ask me? I needed you and you just let me do this by myself." She kicked some dirt around with her shoe and looked at a blade of grass that was suddenly the most interesting thing she had ever seen.

Topanga sighed and stepped closer to Riley, grabbing her hands and lifting her chin to look her in the eyes, "Honey, you're going to have to a lot of things yourself from here on out. You're also going to do a lot of things for someone else. Once you become a mom, your life and your body are no longer your own. You are alive for not only yourself now, but also for your child. Can you handle that? Because there are plenty of other options, it's not too late-"

"No, mom, I want to keep the baby. Trust me, I've thought about my other options and have been very close to terminating this pregnancy but thinking about my life, my family, with Farkle is the thing keeping me back. I want this. I just don't know how to do it." She started tearing up again and Topanga brought her in for another hug.

"I know baby, but no one ever knows how to do it. No one is ever prepared. You're going to be scared shitless when you meet your little baby for the first time and for the rest of your life after that. But you're going to be a great mother, honey. I wouldn't lie to you about that."

Riley wiped her eyes and stepped back, smiling weakly at her mom, "So, what next?"

"Next, you tell your father.

"Ok how about the thing after that? Let's do that."

"Riley."

"But mooooom! He's going to kill me, or Farkle. Or both!"

"Riley. Responsibility, remember? You're a mom now. Put on your mommy panties and tell your father that you're with child."

Riley huffed and uncrossed her arms, knowing her mom was right.

"How about I help you tell him tomorrow night at dinner? Invite Farkle, it's important for him to have a lesson in responsibility too."

"Farkle's the most responsible person I know," she said defensively.

Rolling her eyes, Topanga fired back, "Oh yeah? Then how did he get you pregnant?"

"Wait wait wait, so you're telling me that your mom _knows_? And now you want me to have dinner with your family so we can tell your homicidal father that I knocked you up?" Farkle nervously yelped over the phone.

Wincing, Riley answered, "Yes?"

"DO YOU WANT ME TO DIE RILEY? IF YOU WANTED TO RAISE THIS CHILD ON YOUR OWN YOU COULD HAVE JUST TOLD ME! I DON'T HAVE TO DIE I'M TOO YOUNG."

"Farkle, honey," her voice was calmer than it had been since she saw that infamous '+' that haunts in her dreams, "You're not going to die. I will not let that happen because I love you and our future child and I need you. Please don't yell at me I am simply the messenger. But am I also begging you because I can't face him alone."

She could hear him doing the therapeutic breathing techniques they had been working on since he fainted at her news last week. "Babe? Are you there?"

A final sigh rang through her ear, "Yeah, I'm here. I'll be at your house at six, does that sound ok?"

A giant smile now on her face, Riley thankfully cheered over the phone, "Yes, one hundred times yes that's ok. I love you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

He chuckled on the other end, perfectly imagining the smile on her face, "Anytime, Riles. Tell the bean I'll see them later. Bye-"

"Wait! There's one more thing I want to talk about." A blush spread across her face and chest as she laid on her bed, twirling her fingers in the fur of her pillow.

The topic had been bothering her for a few days. She didn't know if it was the pregnancy hormones or Farkle's new leadership hat he had been wearing recently, but Riley had never been more into him. The down side was, however, whenever they're together, all Farkle wants to do is talk about the baby. And it's not that Riley _doesn't_ want to talk about the baby, but she'd rather not do much talking at all if she were being honest.

"What's up, buttercup?"

She took a deep breath in and then spoke, "Do you maybe want to come over a little before 6? I mean my dad has a meeting after school with his union board and my mom has a really heavy case load so she probably won't be home until later either...We just haven't spent a lot of time, ya know, _together_ , since the whole life altering announcement thing and I just, I don't know I've been thinking about it a lot lately," she ended shyly.

On the other end, she heard Farkle clearing his throat and letting out a breathy laugh, "Oh have you now?"

"Yeah I have," she giggled, "So you should definitely come over very soon and give me some new things to talk about."

"I'm on my way."

"Wait rea-"

And then he hung up.

"I hate his ass," she muttered under breath. But the giant smile plastered across her face begged to differ.

He really wasn't lying when he said he was on his way. Farkle showed up at Riley's bay window in just under ten minutes after he hung up.

Laughing all the way over to the window where her boyfriend patiently sat in the spring rain, she opened the window, "Ever heard of a front door, weirdo?" She giggled as she grabbed his face and kissed him sweetly.

He finished crawling through the window and took off his soaking wet jacket, "It's more romantic this way," he slyly throws back at her as he reconnects their lips and grabbed her hips with his finger tips.

They hadn't felt each other's lips like this in so long it was like waking up after hibernation. An incredibly _long_ hibernation.

"God, I missed this," Riley breathed out as Farkle walked her back towards the bed.

He took their separation as an opportunity to move his mouth onto other prime real estate. Her neck for example, which caused many-a-moans to escape her pretty little mouth. Other great examples are her perky boobs that he was obsessed with and her clavicle or maybe even her shoulder. All were places he had been apart from for far too long.

She then lifted his head and forced him to reconnect their lips as she moved her hands to the hem of his shirt and lifted it up, "Jesus Christ you're freezing, babe."

"Yeah you try running in the rain to your horny baby mama's house without getting a little cold and wet," he joked, being met with a playful slap on the side of his arm before he slipped his shirt off, Riley's following suit.

However, before things could get too crazy, they were rudely interrupted by none other than Cory Matthews.

"I! Wha! Huh! GET OFF HER!" Cory yelled along with a lot of flailing arm movements. He stampeded over to the couple on the bed as Farkle jumped off of her and Riley covered herself up, realizing in panic that not only was she half naked in front of her father, she was half naked and pregnant in front of her father. And she had noticed this morning that she had started showing.

"I'm very sorry sir I, uh, just came over to check up on Riley because she, um, ya know, hasn't been feeling well lately," Farkle fidgeted his way through his bold faced lie of an excuse.

Cory's eyes actually looked like they were about to pop out of his head at this very moment, "And you think that swapping saliva with her is going to help? What's wrong with ya?" He punctuated his final sentence with a smack on Farkle's head.

"Dad! Be nice! I was just trying to keep him warm because he came all this way in the rain and he was cold and wet and my science teacher taught me that the easiest way to transfer body heat is through bare skin.

"Yes that is incredibly true, sir."

"Riley! It's 2019! He can put on a sweater or sit in front of our heater. He doesn't need to stick his tongue down your throat to get warmer."

The room was silent for a few seconds before Farkle awkwardly added, "Yes, sir, that is also incredibly true."

And then, before anyone could reply, Topanga strode in, unknowing to the fact that she walked into a war zone.

"Hey guys, what's everyone doing in- Oh boy."

"Yeah, Topanga! 'Oh boy'!" Cory once again started flailing his arms as a form of punctuation.

Topanga looked from Cory to Riley to Farkle and then back again.

"So you caught them, ya know?"

"Yeah Huh!

"And you're enraged?"

"Oh you betcha!"

"Yeah I assumed so," she began as she walked over to Riley who was still covered up all the way to her chin.

"Riley, dear?"

Looking up at her mother as innocently as possible, she answered, "Yes mother?"

"Is there anything you would like to tell your father?" she asked sweetly.

"Nope. Not a darn thing."

The room grew silent once again, and, once again, Farkle was the one to break it.

"I have something I want to tell you sir," his voice was shaking but his stance was strong.

Sitting up, Riley immediately went to the rescue, "Farkle, you don't have to do this."

"Do what?" Cory yelped nervously.

Sighing and grabbing Riley's hand that wasn't being used to cover her upper body, he sighed and reassured her, "Yes, Riles. I do."

"Do what?!"

With one last deep breath, Farkle came clean, "Mr Matthews, what I'm about to tell you is really, really huge news and I don't want you to make up your mind about anything until I finish," deep breath, "Riley is pregnant with my baby. I understand how terrifying this is for you, because it's so much scarier for me. And even scarier than that for Riley. So please, if you're going to be mad, which I really hope you can look past, be mad at me. Riley already has enough to deal with, she doesn't need your anger on top of it."

"Farkle, you don't have to do this."

Surprisingly, Cory was the one to respond, "Yes he does, Riley," Cory's calm voice startled everyone in the room, especially Farkle. "The mark of a man," he continued, "Is taking responsibility for your actions. And while this, uh, situation is very two sided, he was willing to take the whole blame for you, Riley. And even though I am fighting every instinct in my body not to pumble this small little man into the ground, I will not. Because I've learned better than to get into fights with fellow men," he turns to Farkle and rests his hands on his shoulders, "Thank you for owning up and telling me. This is definitely not my ideal life for my daughter, but if it's the one she has been dealt, I'm glad it's with you. You're going to make an excellent father."

Farkle let a small smile grace his face in thankfulness, "Thank you, sir, that means a lot to me. I would hug you right now, but I am still not wearing a shirt and that would be very, very awkward."

The room's emotion lifted immediately at the light hearted comment, everyone was smiling and felt like it had gone incredibly well.

"Alright, Farkle put your shirt and jacket on. You know what comes next."

The laughing stopped as he got dressed, "Yes sir."

And then, before Riley could stop him, her father was chasing Farkle out the bay window, just like old times.


	7. ch vi

p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was the day of Riley's first doctor's appointment regarding the pregnancy, she was guessing she was at about 8 weeks, and she was really trying to get out of it. Never being a fan of doctor's appointments, a doctor appointment for her fetus is pretty much her worst nightmare./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Farkle?" Riley asked absentmindedly as she tore at her bagel./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Farkle answered from the driver's seat, "Yes dear?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ya know, we don't /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"have /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"to go to this stupid thing," she began, continuing to pick at her bagel and occasionally take a bite out of it, "We can, like, go and get some brunch or visit a bookstore or go to a museum or something. This whole ordeal is just a huge time waster in my opinion."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Expecting nothing less from his anxiety filled girlfriend, he kept his eyes on the road and moved his right hand to grab her left, soothing her with the circular movement of his thumb against the back of her hand. "You're going, Riley. This isn't even for you. You're just a big ol' incubator at this point, don't get stressed."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Big is right!" Riley scoffed, lifting her shirt up, "Do you see this? There's a little itty bitty bump! I'm pudging Farkle!"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're delusional, Matthews, there is absolutely nothing here besides flesh, muscle, and bone," he said, moving his hand over to tickle her naked belly./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Once she stopped giggling and he had both hands back on the wheel, he continued, "Besides, when you do start showing, it's a good thing. It means they're growing, babe."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I guess you're right," she said, sighing, as she moved her attention to the car window. They were about a block away from the clinic and her nerves were all over the place, but having her best friend and boyfriend by her side seemed to make everything seem a little more ok./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"+++++++++++++/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Riley Matthews?" A petite blonde woman called out from the clinic corridor. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Riley turned to face Farkle with a panicked look on her face, eyes wide and skin pale./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You've got this, babe," he reassured her as he grabbed her hand and they made their way towards the nurse./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"As Riley got closer, she remembered what her mom told her about living for her child now. She had to be responsible. And in the spirit of that, Riley extended her hand and introduced herself, "That's me. Riley is the name, accidental pregnancy is the game," she laughed nervously. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The nurse politely laughed and turned away quickly, leading them down the hall to where height and weight are taken./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I should not have said that," Riley whispered to Farkle as they distanced themselves from the nurse out of embarrassment./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Farkle had never been a good liar so he just shrugged, gave her a thumbs up, and an attempt at an encouraging face./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're no help whatsoever!" She whispered yelled at him./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Riley," he chuckled, "What am I supposed to say? You literally just told that nurse that accidental pregnancies are your game."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sighing, she muttered under her breath, "God I'm so hopeless."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No darling," he sighed back as he put an arm around her shoulder, "You're not hopeless, you're adorable."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She smiled up at him with a blush on her cheeks./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Now, go get that weight checked weirdo!" He said as gave her a little love tap right on the backside./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"As she walked away, Farkle grabbed her butt and turned around to face him, giving him a finger wag in disapproval. All he could do was laugh as he stood outside the exam room holding the coats./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Once Riley had gotten all of her vitals taken care of, they were ushered into the exam room and were told to wait for Dr Cathy who would be in in a few moments. The room was unnaturally quiet for them, usually when they were together the air was full of noise and color, but, right now, it was as if the air was weighed down their lungs to the point that they couldn't let a single word out./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"In the midst of the quiet, a sniffle broke out and Farkle looked up from his folded hands to see Riley's in front of her face, hiding her broken features./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Immediately rushing to her, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against him, the way he knew calmed her down./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm so scared," she gasped between sobs, "What if I'm not a good mom? What if there's something wrong with them and it's all my fault? What if, what if," her mind was moving too fast for her mouth as she broke down in a fit of panic./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Farkle had only seen her like this once before, and it was the night that he told her he loved her. It definitely was not the response he had wanted, and it scared the living daylights out of him, but she was just so overwhelmed that she couldn't help but lose it a little bit. She had never loved anyone the way that she loved him, and she was so worried that she would screw something up, that she was hoping it would wear off before she got the chance to ruin it, but, of course, he only loved her more than she could have ever imagined. So as she cried into his arms about how terrifying it is to care about something so much, he just held her close and hummed and whispered little affirmations into her ear, just like he did in this very moment, under the flourescent lights of her doctor's office. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Riles, I'm scared too. But you're the strongest, kindest, smartest, and best person I know. You're going to be a great mother, you have a great mother and history tends to repeat itself. You're father taught us that," she interrupted him with a tearful giggle, remembering all of the times that Cory had looked upon them and saw himself and Topanga./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He loosened his grip and moved in front of her, holding her puffy, red face in his gentle hands, "Repeat after me, ok?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She nodded./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It's/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" going to be ok."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sighing, she repeated him. "/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It's/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" going to be ok."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Good, ok, next one: /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I'm/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" going to be ok."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But," /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Just say it, Riley."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I'm/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" going to be ok."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Last one: /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We're/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" going to be ok."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She smiled slightly up at him and held onto one of large hands with one of her small ones, "/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We're /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"going to be ok."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"His hands still on her cheeks, he brought her face close and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, whispering against her skin, "Still Pluto, babe."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Relaxing against his touch, she repeated his final affirmation, "Still Pluto."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Before either one could say anything else, there was slow clapping coming from the doorway and a short, blonde woman with a big smile across her face./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, that was just adorable, wasn't it?" She said as she walked forward, outstretching her hand to the young couple./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm Dr Richards but, please call me Cathy, and I'm going to be the one taking care of you and your baby during the pregnancy, Miss Matthews."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Shaking her hand, Riley smiled politely and tried to speak as if she hadn't just had a panic attack in front of a stranger, "It's very nice to meet you. Sorry about all of...this," she motioned to her face as she laughed nervously. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh that's no problem, dear, this is very, /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"very /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"overwhelming, especially for someone your age. I'm just glad you have someone to be there for you, I'm assuming this is the father? My apologies if I'm incorrect."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Farkle blushed slightly but confirmed anyway, "Yes, that's me. Sperm donor extraordinaire."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Immediately after he said it, he cringed but Riley just laughed and smiled at him, "It's good to know that I'm not the only awkward one here," she looked down to her stomach, "Good luck, bean."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Cathy smiled endearingly at the couple and the miniscule baby bump, "It's so funny to hear all of the names expecting parents come up with for their babies. 'Bean' might just be one of the cutest ones I've heard though."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh why, thank you." Riley said, blushing slightly at their dorky name./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was painfully quiet for a moment, but then Cathy spoke up and began discussing the actual important matters. She discussed what exactly Riley is to expect over the coming months, confirmed that she was in fact eight weeks along and told them that the baby was due in January due to the fact that the date of conception was sometime in early April. This made Riley and Farkle blush. Hard. Cathy obviously noticed, and decided to poke at the two a little bit, which only made them blush harder./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well by the looks on your faces I'm sure that you two know exactly when this baby was conceived, so I don't even have to bother double checking my calculations. But, congratulations! Your baby is going to be due in Early January, I'd guess sometime between then second and eighth."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Farkle looked to Riley with a big smile on his face, only to see that she was already smiling up at him./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Please take these informational packets, pamphlets, and booklets to educate yourselves further on the upcoming months. I also jotted down the title of a few real books that I recommend to all of my first time parents. My card is inside all of them as well so please, please, do not hesitate to call my office if you need anything. I'd like to see you both again in about four weeks, how does July 7th sound?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""We'll be there," Riley politely answered./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Great! I'll make sure my secretary pencils you two in. Before you go do either of you have any questions?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Speaking up for what seemed like the first time since the doctor came in, Farkle asked what he had been wondering about since the day Riley told him she was pregnant, "When do we get to know the sex?" He asked nervously, but yet full of enthusiasm at the same time./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ahhh, I was wondering when I would get that question. Well Mr Minkus unfortunately you won't be able to find out for another eight or twelve weeks, but I promise you, when you do, it will be the most worthwhile thing you will ever experience," Cathy responded dreamily./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I can barely wait," Farkle said, looking down at Riley, wrapping his arm around her waist./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You two really are charming," Cathy sighed, "Now follow me, there's just a little bit more paperwork we have to do."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"+++++++++++++++++/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"This was the first time Riley had gotten a good night's sleep in weeks, her 'morning' sickness unfortunately end up being 'night' sickness, causing her to stay up for hours, begging her angry child to let her sleep./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"But this night, she actually had been able to sleep for a full four hours before being interrupted. However, it wasn't her unborn child that woke her up tonight, instead it was her restless boyfriend tapping on her bay window./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Farkle it's 3 am what is so important?" She asked, barely being able to open her eyes./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He crawled in frantically without a word and began pacing./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Babe, you know you're welcome here anytime but if you're just going to pace around and not talk then I'm going back to bed."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I am so traumatized," he said without looking at her./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Confused, she replied, "Excuse me? What happened?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Riley, did you know that all of your organs have to move out of the way in order for the baby to grow? Doesn't that terrify you?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, I mean, yeah."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Did you know that from the second trimester onward the baby DRINKS IT'S OWN PEE?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Farkle we've talked about researching after hours, it never ends well for you."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""RILEY. ARE YOU PREPARED FOR YOUR UTERUS TO EXPAND 500 TIMES THE SIZE IT IS NOW?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm going to bed, Farkle."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Riley I'm serious! This is so scary, I had no idea all of this weird stuff happened when you're pregnant. How are you not at my level right now?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sitting back up in bed, she scooted over to wear Farkle was sitting and rested her head on his shoulder, "Because, babe, I'm a girl. These are things I've looked up whenever me or my friends have had pregnancies scares, even before we had ever had sex. Ever since I was like twelve I had been lectured about not getting pregnant unless I wanted a human peeing inside of me. This is all old news to me, babe."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And it doesn't scare you? How does all of this not scare you? There's a person growing inside of you!" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She laughed at his eccentricity, "Babe, I think we both know that I'm terrified. Let's not forget that episode at the doctor's yesterday. I'm just not so stressed about the little things like you are, I guess."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He turned to face her, "Then what are you stressed about?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well," she sighed as she held his hand and pulled him back against the bed with her, "I guess I'm just scared of the logistics of it all, ya know? Like, there's a real, brand new, person that's going to exist now and it's going to be half of you and half of me. And I mean, when I put it like that it doesn't sound scary because, well, we're kind of the best, but I don't know. It's terrifying that in seven more months our lives will be changed forever and there's no stopping now."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He looked to her and then back at the ceiling, their hands still intertwined, "You're right, our lives will be changed, and it /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"is/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" a scary concept, but I guess I'm not afraid because it's you and me. And I've always wanted it to be you and me and now it is. Don't get me wrong, it's not like this isn't going to be hard and we're not going to hate each other every once in awhile, but you're all that I've ever wanted, and all that I've ever needed, and as long as I've got you, nothing can really be that bad."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"His kind words floated into her ears and down into her heart, lifting her spirits to new heights. She didn't answer, but instead just moved over and cuddled up against him, covering themselves in her duvet./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Take off your shoes and stay with me, please," she whispered as she traced patterns into the cloth covering his chest./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 2.4; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Always."/span/p 


	8. ch vii

Riley slept better that night than she had in months, the feeling of Farkle holding her never fleeted throughout the night and she did all that she could to hold onto it for as long as possible as she felt herself stir awake the next morning. Her head still resting on her chest, she listened to his heartbeat and felt the rise and fall of his lungs beneath her. She smiled to herself, knowing that her entire world was right there, in that bed. Her, Farkle, and the bean. Together. Every space in her heart was full of love and she could feel the serenity of the space all the way in her toes. But, of course, that was never going to last long in her household.

"Wakey wakey ya maroons!" Cory marched in chanting, ripping the blankets off of them.

Riley covered her eyes to protect herself from the harsh rays of the sun as Farkle shot up in bed, disoriented and, frankly, terrified.

"Where am I? What's happening?" Farkle panicked as he looked around the room, his eyes not quite focusing yet.

"Hell," Cory deadpanned.

Riley's eyes widened at her father, "Dad!"

"I'm just kidding, Riley. He's not in hell," his sweet smile is switched into slitted eyes as he turns his attention to Farkle, "Yet."

With a look of terror on his face, Farkle makes a break for the bay window, "So Riley I think I'm going to before my parents get suspicious, I'll see you later!"

"Not so fast, slick," Cory says as he grabs onto Farkle's left leg, reeling him back into the apartment. "You and Riley have plans with me today, doesn't that sound fun?"

"Oh boy," Riley sighs as she falls back onto her pillow.

Farkle gulps but feigns a smile anyway, "Of course, sir."

"Great! Meet me at the bakery in half an hour, now get out of here, you stink," and, with that, he shoves Farkle towards the window where he happily obliges to run out of. With Farkle on his way home, Cory locks the bay window and turns to Riley, "No funny business!" Then left her to her own devices.

Just as Riley was getting out of bed and picking out her outfit for the day, preferably something flowy (even though she was nowhere near showing yet), she heard her phone vibrate against her beside table.

 **Farkley**

See you soon babe, I love you.

 **Riles**

Thanks for staying last night. To pluto and back?

 **Farkley**

Pluto and back a million times. Always.

Riley knew her father was inside of the bakery, but she made a point to wait outside for Farkle. She had no idea what this day was going to entail, but there was no way she was going to face it alone.

As the minutes left shrank and her anxiety grew, she couldn't help but look at her watch every three seconds. "Where is he?" he muttered to herself as she checked her phone, checking to make sure he hadn't texted for the eighth time that minute.

She was just about to call him when he came running down the stairs leading to the bakery, "I'm here. I'm -" he was keeled over, panting, trying to get his excuse out.

Jumping to his aid, Riley leaned down beside him, "Jesus, Farkle did you _run_ all the way here?"

Once his lungs regained life again, he stood up straight and gave her a look that was half nervousness and half fake innocence.

"What'd you do?" Riley sighed, moving one hand to her hip and the other to massage her temple.

"Promise not to be mad?" He said, his voice small and scared.

"No."

"Ok well do your best ok?" he stopped and sighed, wringing his hands together and rubbing the back of his neck, "I may have told my parents that they're going to be grandparents even though we promised we would do it together and they may not be the happiest about it and they may or may not want to have dinner with us next week?"

Riley's jaw was dropped so severely, Farkle was worried she'd start swallowing flies.

"Riles I know we wanted to do it together but an ultrasound picture fell out of my wallet and what was I supposed to tell them when they asked what it was? You know how bad of a liar I am!"

He was right, he was a terrible liar. Back before they started dating, Maya called Farkle out for staring at Riley's butt while she was cheering at a basketball game one time, and when Riley asked him jokingly if it was true Farkle almost threw up everywhere. Every pore in his body started sweating and his usual clear cut conversation skills turned to mush. It's a good thing she found it cute though, because they started dating two weeks later.

"You're right. There was nothing you could have said to hide it," she said, sighing yet again, "This is just not _at all_ how I wanted them to find out. Wait, what do you mean they're not happy about it? I mean obviously they aren't going to be thrilled but are they mad? Do they hate me?" Riley could feel her pulse rising, of course they hated her. She was the reason her son's future was completely and totally compromised. God only knows if he would still commit to Harvard, she hadn't asked yet. She was too afraid of the answer being no, and it being her fault. His whole life ahead of him before she happened, and now the Minkus' aren't going to want anything to do with her or the baby and that was so heartbreaking to her, because what if it caused Farkle to drift away from her too?

She didn't realize she was crying until she felt a single warm tear fall onto her pouty lips. Farkle was engulfing her in a hug before any more could fall, absorbing her self doubt with the strength he possessed.

"Of course they don't hate you, babe. They're just furious at me for not being more careful. They're incredibly nervous about the logistics of it all, with college coming up and all, and they just really wish I would have waited a year or two to knock you up, that's all," he laughed as he smoothed her hair down with his gentle touch.

"I just don't want to be the reason your life's ruined," she whispered into his chest as more tears threatened to fall.

Taken aback from her confession, he holds her in front of him, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Riley Matthews. You are, by far, the best thing to ever happen to me. I don't want you thinking like that, ok? Without you, I would have been a nothing. You made me something, you made me believe that I could be anything. You are the reason I strive to be a better person because I want to be someone that deserves you more than anything. The sun rises and sets on you as far as I'm concerned. The timing of this sucks but there is no one in this world I would rather fuck things up with. Do you understand me? You, me, and this baby are going to rule the world as far as I'm concerned. You could never ruin anything for me, because you're the reason I have anything in the first place."

He pulled her back into a hug and held her tighter than before, whispering "Always" into her ear over and over again until he wiped away all of the anxiety that flooded her aura.

She pulled away and wiped her face, smiling up at her best friend and her boyfriend, "I love you, Minkus."

He smiled down at her and laid a peck onto her lips, "Love you too, Matthews."

"Now, let's go see what my father has planned for us today," she said as she grabbed his hand.

Following her reluctantly, he rolled his eyes, "Oh goody."

"What took you two so long? I'm growing a beard over here waiting for the two of you!" Cory practically yells, jumping up from his seat, as the two walk through the front door of the cafe, hand in hand.

"Sorry, sir, I was running late," Farkle says as he instinctively wraps an arm around Riley's waist, pulling her as close as possible.

"Well now we're _all_ late!" Cory says as he marches towards the door, leaving the teenagers in the dust.

As the two looked to each other, clearly confused, Mr. Matthews stuck his head through the doorway, "Well, are you two coming or what?"

"Dad, do you care to explain where we're going?" Riley asked, annoyance seeping through her syllables. The three of them had been walking for blocks and blocks and Riley had absolutely no idea where she was going. She hadn't expected for physical activity to be tiresome until she started showing but, right now, all she wanted to do was sit down and take a nap.

"Almost there sweetie!" Cory yelled from in front of them, not turning back.

They walked another three blocks when Cory abruptly stopped in front of a very unremarkable brick building.

"Oh thank God," Riley sighed as she sat down on the front steps of this mystery building, "I thought I was going to pass out."

Farkle joined her on the ground, wrapping her in his embrace as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Nope nope nope! Get up, the day is just beginning. You will not rest until the day is done, my friends." And, with that, he was making his way up the stairs and into the building, disappearing.

"Ugh!" Riley whined as she stood up.

"I'm sure there will be somewhere to sit inside," Farkle tried to comfort her. She met his attempt with an eye roll and her walking into the building, following her father.

When Farkle caught up to the two of them, he was astounded at what he saw. There were children, of all ages, all over the place. Infants, toddlers, elementary age, you name it, there were about fifty.

"Sir," Farkle began nervously, the moisture leaving his throat, "Where are we?"

"Oh this?" Cory asked, motioning to the children and their caretakers, " _This_ is an orphanage. I volunteered the three of us to help out today. I figured you two could use all of the help you could get. Now, I'm going to be in the elementary area because I teach a class here once in awhile about New York City history to the little ones, so you two will be with the infants and toddlers. Have fun! And don't worry, they're just incredibly small and fragile."

"Great." Riley sighed to herself as she watched her father walk away.

Farkle draped her arm over her shoulders, "C'mon, it can't be _that_ bad. Besides, look how cute these little munchkins are?" He said as he led them down the hall towards the room that said "1-5 yrs" on the front in gold lettering.

When he opened the door, there were about fifteen little kids around the room, some were with other volunteers or nurses, and others were playing with one another on the floor.

Riley was about to step in when Farkle stopped her, "Riley! Watch your step, these are very small people. They will be easy to step on," he whispered as he looked around skeptically, gently stepping a foot into the room.

She laughed at his ridiculousness, "Farkle are you serious right now? Have you never been around toddlers or infants?"

He looked away from her and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Oh my god you've never been around toddlers or infants."

"Shhh! Not so loud, they'll hear you. They feed off of fear," he said as he tried to subtly point at the children inside the room.

"How have you not been around children? In seven months you're going to have one of your own!" She whisper yelled at him.

"It's not my fault I'm an only child!" He whisper yelled back.

She sighed, looked up at the ceiling, and walked away and towards the kids playing in the corner, "You're so exhausting."

"Riley! Riley! Don't leave me here stranded!"

"Oh for Christ's sake just walk into the room, Farkle! They won't bite!"

"Actually," a blonde nurse in the corner began, " _That_ one does," she said motioning to one staring at Farkle.

His eyes immediately widened at Riley and she laughed at him, moving to the ground to sit with a little girl with a bundle of wavy hair pulled into two little pigtails. "Hi cutie, what's your name?"

The little girl looked up from her puzzle and smiled at Riley, "Lucy."

Riley could have sworn that she felt her heart melting, "Hi Lucy, I'm Riley. You have very pretty hair."

Lucy blushed and looked back down her puzzle, trying to fit a corner piece right into the middle of the puzzle.

Smiling at the innocence of it all, Riley found the piece that was supposed to go into the middle and handed it to Lucy, "Here, I think this is the one you're looking for."

The look on Lucy's face was absolutely priceless. Her amber eyes lit on fire and her little baby teeth shined as she burst into the biggest smile, revealing two giant craters on the sides of her cheeks.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" She cheered as she fit the piece in perfectly.

Riley giggled at the little girl's fit of joy, "You're very welcome, Lucy."

Before Lucy could look for another piece, however, she waved her hand, motioning for Riley to come closer, "Who's that boy over there?" Riley looked to where Lucy was pointing and saw her Farkle, he was surrounded by little kids, all around four or five, and he was telling a story with giant animations on his face. They were all giggling like maniacs and Farkle was eating it up. When she looked closer, she saw there was a little baby girl attached to his side, fast asleep. Her heart had never felt more full.

"That boy, is my boyfriend," she smiled to Lucy.

"Are you two going to be a family?" Lucy asked innocently.

Smiling at Farkle rock the little girl in his arms while smiling sweetly down at her, Riley replied in a sweet tone, "Yeah, we are."

Cory left long before they did, it was date day with Topanga and they were going to the new showcase at the MET so he left the kids some cab money and went on his way, thanking them for helping today. He left them with a fond smile, growing at ease with their situation as he saw the two of them with the children, totally in their element.

"Did you see me with those kids, Riles? I was on fire! They loved me!" Farkle was practically whizzing down the sidewalk with giddiness, they decided to use the cab money for frozen yogurt and they were currently on their way back to the Matthews' place.

She giggled at his enthusiasm and held onto his harm tighter, nuzzling her face into him. "You were brilliant, babe. Especially for a first timer!" She teased and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Whatever, you're just jealous that all of the kids loved my crazy science experiment stories more than your retold fairytale stories-"

"Hey!" she stopped them in the sidewalk, "Princess and the Political Agenda is a great story for young kids, especially young girls!"

He smiled back down at her and wrapped his arm around her waist, moving them along again, "Of course it is darling but that doesn't negate the fact that I am simply cooler than you."

"Alright there buddy, I'm not sure if toddler's opinions of you are the measurement of being 'cool'," she scoffed at him.

"It is when you're a dad," he said as a blush spread across his face, "Because that's what I am now and for the rest of my life: a father. And as long as that little kid likes me," he paused and tickled Riley's stomach, "Well I guess I can't be that bad."

Leaning against his side, she sighed dreamily, "You made me so proud today. You were so good with those kids, I can't wait for our little bean to look at you the way those kids did. You're going to blow them away."

He smiled at the ground, "No, I think it's them that's going to blow me away. Especially if they're even the littlest bit like you."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Minkus. What more do you want? You already knocked me up!" She joked.

"I want us to live together," he said. Incredibly seriously.

They stopped mid sidewalk, only about half a block away from the Matthews' apartment. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was dry, "You what?"

He looked down at the ground and then to her, "I don't want to miss a single second of this pregnancy or of our baby's life. We're both 18 so we can legally rent an apartment, I'm sure my dad would co-sign with me and we can get a six month lease and then relocate to wherever we need to be for the winter admissions for college," he grabbed her waist and pulled her closer, looking into her eyes, "I know that this is a lot and I understand if you want to wait, but I want to be with you, every second, every hour, every day. I go out of my fucking mind when I'm not with you, Riles. And, I mean, we're already going to spend the rest of our lives together, right? Why not start now before we have a baby to lug around?"

Her smile was so incredibly big she thought her cheeks were going to burst. Grabbing onto his flannel, she pulled him close and kissed him deeply. He sighed into the kiss, cupping her butt and pulling her close. For a brief moment they separated and he rested his forehead on hers, "So is that a yes?" he laughed.

"Of course it is you crazy person. Now kiss me."

"You're so needy," he teased, moving his lips to her neck.

"You love it," she gasped.

He pulled apart and laughed against her shoulder, "You got me there, Matthews."

"Let's go tell my parents."


	9. ch viii

"Father, mother, we are gathered here today to discuss the future of myself, Mr Farkle Minkus, and your future grandchild," Riley began as she and Farkle stood before her parents sitting on the couch. She was pacing and speaking as if she was more calm and confident than she felt, because on the inside she was truly shaken.

"Oh God you're not getting married are you?" Topanga sighed as her head fell into her hands.

Nervously, Riley laughed and made awkward eye contact with Farkle and then continued, "Well, no, but close!"

Then the room fell silent as the parents looked to Farkle and then to Riley and then back again for what seemed like hours.

"What exactly do you mean by 'close'?" Cory huffed.

Riley joined her boyfriend in front of the television and held onto him tight, "We're going to start looking for an apartment together, sir," Farkle said, very calmly, as Riley pulled at the buttons on his shirt and rubbed the fabric between her fingers, trying to grasp onto some sort of security.

Cory and Topanga turned to each other, and then to the kids and they immediately burst into a loud, violent fit of laughter.

"You two should go on the road together!" Topanga hollered as she grabbed her stomach, keeling over.

Cory wiped tears from his eyes, "I swear," he laughed, "You two keep me on my toes!" And then, him and Topanga were up and walking away.

Offended that they weren't taking her seriously in the least bit, she ran after them and grabbed their arms, whipping them around, "I'm serious. Farkle is going to get his father to co sign with us and we're going to get an apartment. We're starting our lives together."

"Riley, neither of you have a job. Or any savings. You're also both going to be going to college soon, you really think that you'll be able to afford college _and_ an apartment? Have you put any thought into this at all?" Topanga said as she crossed her arms, assuming the lawyer mom position she took to so well.

The air stilled in the Matthews' living room.

"Riley, I want you to start your life with your new family if it is what's going to make you happy, but you just don't have the financial means to do so right now. I'm sorry," Cory said as he reached out to his daughter, rubbing her arm and smiling apologetically.

Meanwhile, Farkle still stood halfway across the room. "Actually," he said, voice trembling, "I _do_ have a savings, and my dad was the one that brought this up," he began moving over to the three as they stood and looked at him, "My dad has been saving up for me to travel to Europe to do research in the finest science labs the world has to offer since I could collect leaves and follow bugs in Central Park, but this seems far more important. We negotiated it and he promised to pay half every month, and then take the other half from the savings. I'm obviously going to get a part time job, but yeah. That's that," he said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking from the floor to Riley's face.

She grabbed his hand and faced him, expression stone cold, "You don't have to give up on your dream Farkle, we can tough it out for the next few months in Casa de Matthews. I don't want you to do this," she whispered without meaning to.

"But _I_ want to. I've already made my decision, and so has my father. I'm not giving up anything, Riles, _you're_ my dream now. You're all I could ever need," he said, a small smile spreading across his face. " _In fact,_ my father has a good friend that's subletting his place in the Village while he does business in Europe for a couple of months and my father told him about our situation and he's willing to give us a discounted price. We could go look at it tomorrow and then live there for a few months until the winter semester starts and we decide what we want to do about college," he paused and looked down at Riley's stomach and then back up at her, grabbing her face with his hands and rubbing his thumbs against her cheeks softly, "I know it seems like everything has been working against us lately, but we're so beyond lucky right now and I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Are you ready for this adventure with me?"

All Riley could do was smile and nod enthusiastically. She couldn't believe she got this lucky. It was as if life was finally recognizing all that she had done and all that she deserved and had decided to start looking out for her and the bean.

However, behind this sweet exchange, Cory cleared his throat and stepped toward Farkle in a very militant manner, "Farkle. You have my blessing _if,_ and only _if_ , Topanga and I both get a key to your apartment _and_ you only take a part time job. I don't need my daughter and your unborn child wasting away at home all alone while you're off doing God knows what God knows where," he extended his hand, "Do we have a deal?"

Farkle barely smiles as he shakes Cory's had, "Sir, yes sir!"

"Peaches, I've missed you so much," Riley says as she grabs her best friend's hand from across the table.

She smiles warmly back at Riley, "I've missed you too honey. Now! Update me, what's going on in Rileytown?" she asked, digging at her caesar salad, hunting for the last croutons.

Riley almost choked on her tea, remembering that she had to tell Maya about the apartment her and Farkle were checking out this afternoon. She had no idea why she was so nervous about telling Maya, she had almost never been worried about telling Maya anything. Maya was everything to her, the only person that had always totally and completely mattered in every decision she had made, so why was she not involved in this one? Why has she seemed so absent in her life?

Perhaps it was because involving Maya made it all so real. The fantasy was gone as soon as Maya knew all of the nitty, gritty details. Her and Maya weren't going to get to live together in college and then however long after, her and Maya weren't going to get to stay up late and talk about boys anymore, because now Riley has a baby. And Maya is slowly fading. And that might just be the worst part about losing a part of her life she had clung onto so desperately; her future.

"Riles?" Maya asked, looking up from her salad when Riley hadn't answered. "What aren't you telling me?"

With a big sigh, Riley finally looked her best friend in the eye, "Farkle and I are going to get an apartment from a friend of his father's this afternoon. And I don't know why I was so nervous about telling you - actually, no that's a lie," another big sigh and a few fingers tousling her hair, "I know exactly why and it's because I'm not ready for us to stop. I'm, not ready to lose you, Peaches. We were supposed to be together forever and now, here I am, getting fat and getting an apartment all without you. All I ever wanted was for us to get fat, because of ice cream, and get an apartment t _ogether_ but now it just feels like my big fat belly is building a wall between us and I don't know how to stop it."

Maya's eyes were watery and Riley was almost relieved that for the first time in weeks, she wasn't the one crying. "Riles, nothing could tear us apart. I'm sorry I haven't been around for you, I just don't know how to be. But that's my fault, not yours, and I'm sorry. You're the most important part of my life and I never want you to feel like you're losing me," she paused and put her hand up the air, surely confusing the people walking by the cafe they were eating at, "Thunder."

"Lightning," Riley giggled as she joined Maya's hand in the air.

"Now, let's go do something!" Maya said excitingly, wiping the tears from her eyes, "I'm not tryna sit here and mope, let's go shopping. I've been dying to pick some things out for the bean."

Nodding enthusiastically, Riley left some bills for their lunch and grabbed Maya's hand, swinging it in the air as they made their way through the streets of New York City, as together as ever.

"What do you think of this, Riley?" Maya asked as she held up a pink little baby shirt that said "I'm your future president" on it in glitter lettering from across the rack of clothes.

A giant smile spread across Riley's face, "I love it. I'm buying it, hand it over," she reached her arm across the rack of miniature clothes, but before she could grab ahold of it Maya held it out of reach, "Uh uh uh, I'm buying it. And my bets are that bean is a girl, but even if it's a boy, he will still look great in this."

"Farkle wants it to be a girl too," Riley gushed as she flipped through the rack, "He said he wants someone just like me but with his last name running around."

"That's so cute I think I might throw up. You two really are made for eachother, ya know? I've known it since the seventh grade," Maya hummed.

Scoffing, Riley rolled her eyes at Maya as they met at the end of the rack and made their way towards the cash register, doing their fair share of damage to their respective bank accounts, "As if, Maya. You just didn't want him to love you."

"That's true," Maya laughed, "But looking back on it, it makes perfect sense. You meant everything to him, Riles, I was just there as an excuse. Because if he didn't love us both, he'd have to deal with the terror of actually loving your best friend."

"Is this all of for you, ma'am?" the cashier asked.

"Yes thank you," Maya said before continuing, "I mean, of course it also had to do with the fact that he was twelve and had no idea what his real feelings were, but even then I'm almost positive he loved you almost as much as he loves you now."

Riley was blushing so hard could she feel the heat on the back of her neck, "You think so?"

"Please, I know so," Maya said as they left the store, arms weaved together and the sun shining on their faces. It all felt so familiar that Riley almost didn't remember that everything was so, so different.


	10. ch ix

It had been about a month since Farkle and Riley had seen the apartment, and about two weeks since they had moved in. The place was nice enough, two bedrooms with an open floor plan, hardwood floors, and a view of the Village. It was only about four blocks from the Matthews' place which was very comforting to Riley as this whole living on their own thing had really thrown her for a loop.

"I can't believe all we have in this place in crackers. Crackers I tell you! I am a growing _pregnant_ young woman I can not live off of crackers!" Riley yelled as she flopped down onto the plastic covered couch, arms crossed and face scowled.

Farkle laughed as he walked behind the couch, leaning down to kiss her on the head and whisper in her ear, "Maybe if you're a good girl at the doctor's office today you can get some groceries?"

"And some ice cream too?" She asked playfully as she turned around to kiss him before getting up for the appointment.

"That's only if you're extra good," he teased, "Now hurry up or we'll be late!"

This was only Riley's second doctor's appointment but she was already twelve weeks along and her bump was _definitely_ noticeable.

"Farkle I think there's something wrong with me, all of these moms on the internet at 12 weeks have nowhere near the baby bump I have! Look at this thing, it's like carrying around a volleyball under my shirt," Riley complained while poking at her stomach, revealing it to the entire waiting room at Dr Carol's office.

"Riley, babe, relax," Farkle said in a soothing tone as he took her hands and held them in one of his, "You're fine and beautiful and so is the baby, last time we were here the doctor said we have nothing to worry about so let's just go and hear that heartbeat, shall we?"

"Says the one with a flat stomach and stationary internal organs," she grumbled under her breath.

Farkle laughed, "I heard that."

"You were meant to."

Before the banter could continue, the same blonde nurse as the last time, "Matthews-Minkus family?"

Immediately, Riley and Farkle's faces both lit up at the sound of their names together along with the word "family". Because that's what they were now, a family.

After the nurse practitioner had taken all of the notes she needed and answered all of Farkle's weird questions about the pregnancy facts he read online as quickly as possible, she had made her way out the door and before they knew it, Dr Carol was in the exam room with a monitor and some other official looking accessories.

"How's my favorite young couple today?" she asked as she wheeled in her ultrasound equipment, "Everything going fine I hope?"

"Yes, great actually," Riley said as she leaned back against the cot, following the motion of Carol's hand, "Farkle and I just rented an apartment."

Carol smiled as she rubbed the cold gel on Riley's barely there bump, "Well isn't that exciting. Look at you two, making your way up in the world!"

Riley and Farkle looked at each other fondly and smiled, joining their hands. Farkle kissed Riley's before turning back to Carol, "So we get to see the baby today? Do we get to hear the heartbeat? Will we know the gender?"

"Yes, yes, and, unfortunately, no," Carol laughed, "That last one isn't for another four weeks, but you've come to the right place for the first two! Now let me get this thing on and get you two some pictures of your baby," she said as she turned her attention to the monitor, messing with some buttons and switches.

"I'm so excited," Farkle said as he leaned down and kissed Riley on the top of her head, "Can you believe it? Our baby. On that screen" he pointed, breaking one of the fingers he was holding Riley's hand with free.

"I just hope they're healthy," Riley sighed. She didn't want to get her hopes up, she just wanted to make sure everything was ok. The rest could wait forever for all she cared.

"Alright, 3, 2, 1, touchdown!" Carol narrated as she lowered her probe looking thing onto Riley's stomach. She was in an incredibly good mood.

After a few moments of silence and Farkle and Riley staring at the shadows on the screen as if there was a significance to them, Farkle spoke up, "So, uh, if I may: What exactly am I looking at?"

Carol seemed to be off in her own little world as she stared at the monitor and prodded at Riley's stomach, but Farkle snapped her back to reality. "Oh yes! Well, uh, Farkle dear, you may want to sit down."

This immediately caused Riley to sit up on the cot, her biggest fear was coming true, "Why? Is there something wrong with them?" Her voice was shaky, but she clung onto Farkle's hand for dear life.

Instead of sitting down, Farkle only moved closer to Riley, tugging her tight against him and rubbing circles into her shoulder as they waited for Carol to give them the bad news they were so afraid of receiving.

Carol covered her mouth in surprise, "Oh no, goodness dear! You are fine, everyone's fine."

Even though her body had physically relaxed and the tension was gone, she was still perplexed, "Well the baby and I are fine then what's the big deal?"

"Well, uh, that's the thing. It's not just you and the baby dear. It's you, and the baby, and the baby," she paused and the room was dead silent. "You're pregnant with twins, dear."

To Riley's surprise, Farkle didn't faint. He stood strong next to her, his hold on her unwavering and considering the fact that _she_ felt as though she was going to faint, she was incredibly proud of him.

"I'm sorry, did you just say that Riley is pregnant with twins?" He said, still not fully believing the words coming out of Carol's mouth.

"Yes and this is very exciting! Two for the price of one, that's what I always say," Carol exclaimed, clapping her hands and _really_ not getting the mood of the room.

This is not to say that the couple was not over the moon, because they were. How lucky were they to have not only one healthy baby, but two healthy babies? But, they were barely mentally and financially prepared for one baby. And now they have twenty four more weeks to become mentally and financially prepared for two babies and that, frankly, is a lot to handle.

Staring off into space, Riley asked, "Aren't twin pregnancies more high risk though?"

Carol rested a hand on Riley's knee, "Yes they are dear but you are young and fit so I'm not too worried, and if I'm not then you shouldn't be either."

Farkle wrapped his arm around Riley as he sat down on the bed with her, squeezing her shoulder, "Dr Carol, what should we do differently in order to prepare for the additional baby?"

Carol sighed and got out a pad and paper from the drawer on her desk and began jotting some things down as she spoke, "Well I would recommend doing as much work as possible before they come, I cannot stress how important it is to be as financially prepared as possible. Try to become at peace with cheaper furniture and items so you can afford to buy two of each. And just try to be extra aware of your body, Riley, and listen to it," she ripped off the paper she had been writing on and handed it to Farkle, "You two, well, you four, will be fine. I promise," she said with a smile, "Now! Do you two want pictures of the little plums?"

They hadn't told Zay and Smackle yet but they knew they had too. They just hadn't had time since Smackle was in Florida with her parents and Zay had gotten a scholarship to some performance camp at UCLA, there just hadn't been the perfect moment.

However, _this_ moment wasn't the perfect moment either.

Riley had taken up as many shifts as possible at the Cafe lately, especially after finding out that she was pregnant with _twins_ , mind you. (Cory did not take to this too kindly, of course. He fainted. Twice. "One for each baby!" Topanga had said as she scooped her husband off the floor for the second time.) So, she worked as often as her body, and her anxious boyfriend, allowed her too.

It was a Sunday evening, their lightest shift, and Riley was reading up on the classic _What To Expect When You're Expecting_ when she heard the bell on the door ring for the first time in the last hour and a half, and in walked in Smackle and Zay.

Immediately, she ducked under the counter.

"Hello?" She heard Zay ask.

"Why would they have the open sign on if there is no one here? Why can't everyone be as straight forward as I am?" Smackle joined in

"Because, dear, then your bluntness would lose it's charm."

 _Shit shit shit,_ Riley thought to herself as she heard them getting closer. _Ok, maybe they actually think that no one is actually here so they'll go away. God, I'm such a terrible friend. I should just tell them. Right? I should just tell him-_

Beep!

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the bagel she forgot she was toasting letting her know it was done and ready to be devoured.

"What was that!" Smackle exclaimed, she definitely sounded closer at this point.

"Ow!" Zay groaned, "Smackle! You just punched me in the eye!"

"Sorry, dearest, I was just startled, it's spooky when there's no one here."

 _I have to tell them. I'm telling them._

"Oh there you are!" Riley yelled, pretending to find an earring on the ground as she stood back up. "Oh! Zay, Smackle! What a lovely surprise," she continued, thankful that her untied apron and the height of the counter were covering her baby bump nicely.

"What were you looking for?" Zay asked.

"Just an earring," Riley said nonchalantly.

"But you're already wearing two earrings," Smackle chimed in.

Riley laughed nervously, "Yes, Smackle, that's because I put the lost one back in."

Satisfied with her answer, Smackle turned her attention to the bagel sitting in the toaster on the other island, "Aren't you going to get that?"

Realizing that moving would mean an increased risk of them seeing the baby bump before her explaining, Riley changed the subject, "So, what can I get for you?"

"I think Smackle wants that bagel," Zay said, pointing to the same blueberry bagel.

"You can't have the bagel!" Riley erupted, causing Zay and Smackle to grow even more suspicious.

"Riley," Zay began, "What is your problem? We haven't seen you in over a month and now you're treating us like _this_? If you wanted us to leave, you could have just said so," he finished as he grabbed Smackle's hand and started towards the door.

"Guys! No, please, stay," Riley said, tears welling up. "Of course I want to see you. I'm sorry I'm acting like this, I just have a lot of stuff going on and it's a little overwhelming."

"Like what Riley? We're here for you, always. Remember?" Smackle assured Riley as she held her hand from across the counter.

"Yeah," Riley sighed, "I know, Smackle. This is just a _really_ big thing and I don't know how to say it."

"How about we go sit down?" Zay said as he led the ladies to the seats where they always sit.

Smackle faced away from Riley as she followed Zay, and Riley saw it as the best opportunity to come out of hiding behind the counter. So, she slipped out and took off her apron, revealing her baby bump. When they turned around, they would know. She was thirteen weeks along with twins and, granted, she wasn't huge by any means but she was definitely showing. And they would definitely be shown.

Zay made his way to the seat closest to the front wall and Smackle followed suit, he began speaking before he turned around, "So, Riley, what is this big new-" He immediately stopped when he turned and saw Riley standing before them.

"Oh my God," Smackle stated blankly.

"Don't say it, babe." Zay said to Smackle, treading lightly.

"You're pregnant!"

"And you still said it. Alright let's sit and listen to Riley," Zay coaxed as he lowered himself and Smackle down onto the cushioned bench.

The three sat in silence for probably five whole minutes before Smackle spoke up, "So, how far along are you? I think that's what you're supposed to ask during these situations."

"I'm 12 weeks," Riley answered nervously.

"Do you know the gender yet?" Zay added in.

"Well uh, know," Riley began, "But it's funny you should ask because there isn't only one gender, you see, I'm, uh, pregnant with twins," she finished with a wince.

The three of them sat in complete silence until, finally, Zay was the one to speak up, "So, you mean to tell me, that you, Riley Matthews, are pregnant with not one, but two babies."

"Well when you put it like that," Riley trailed off before sighing and accepting it, "Yes that is exactly what I'm saying."

"That sounds incredibly overwhelming, are you ok?" Smackle asked, surprising everyone in the room with her sincerity.

Riley looked up from her hands and to her friends, her amazing, understanding, genuine friends and smiled a small smile, "Yeah. I'm ok. Some days are better than others, but I'm doing alright. I'm sorry Farkle and I didn't tell you sooner, I guess that the longer we put it off the easier it was to stop it from becoming real. We also knew how amazing your summers were going and I know I didn't want to put extra stress on you."

"Riley, we want to help you. That's what we do for each other. We weren't voted 'AAHS' most annoyingly sappy freshman ever' for nothing," Zay joked about the Twitter poll that revealed their fate freshman year, "Now. What can the Mrs and I do to help?" He asked, wrapping his arm around Smackle's shoulder.

"Uhm, I don't know really. There isn't much to be done as of right now. We're just trying to save up as much money and energy as possible before the beans arrive," she smiled, "But thank you for asking, really. I will let you know when there's something."

The couple opposite of Riley stood up and walked towards her to embrace her, toppling on top of her on the couch and engulfing her in the most epic dog pile to ever be dog piled.

Through her fits of laughter, Riley finally managed to squeeze out a "You know, these are going to be a logistical _nightmare_ when my stomach becomes the size of two watermelons hugging one another."

"So enjoy it while you can, Matthews," The couple chorused.

"Honey, I'm home!" Riley sang as she came entered her and Farkle's apartment after another day's work at the cafe.

Work had been going really well for Riley and Farkle at the moment. She was making decent money at Topanga's, the tips were definitely a plus, and Farkle was absolutely _killing_ it as a camp counsellor at the New York Hall of Science. He also managed to squeeze in a few Topanga's shifts whenever he could. So, needless to say, the couple was doing pretty financially well for the time being, obviously mostly because Farkle is the son of a millionaire but that did not stop them from celebrating, or relaxing, after a long week of work. And, tonight, they had chosen relaxing.

"Farkle?" She called through the halls, searching for her boyfriend.

"In here!" He sang from the soon to be nursery.

When Riley walked in she saw some random cardboard boxes, a few lingering pieces of bits and bobs, and a dormant Farkle laying on the wooden floor, staring up at the ceiling. Without a second thought, Riley joined him on the floor, cuddling up beside him and tracing patterns into his Museum shirt.

After several minutes of nothing but the sound of their synced inhales and exhales, Riley finally spoke in a hesitant and hushed tone, "Whatcha thinkin about?"

"Us," Farkle sighed, "You, me, them, I don't know. I know that we've been over this a million times and each time we've decided we're going to be ok because we have each other and all that fun stuff but, I don't know, I can't help but still be scared out of my mind," He sighed again and closed his eyes and dropped his volume, "What if I'm not good enough for them? I don't know how to do this fathering thing. My dad was barely around so he didn't really teach me anything, and I was an only child so I didn't even have to take care of someone else. I never even had a pet!"

"You took care of me. You _still_ take care of me," Riley said, resting her chin on his chest so she could look him in the eyes, "You're going to be an amazing father because you're strong," She began to punctuate her comments with a kiss to various parts of his face, this time for the left cheek, "Incredibly compassionate," Right cheek, "And you have never stepped away from someone you love, no matter what. You are always up for a challenge and that's one of the many things I love about you," And, finally, and nice long kiss on the lips to end her sermon.

After a long, sincere make out session where Riley somehow ended up on top of Farkle, he pulled away, resting his hands on her legs and looking up at her, one side of his mouth turned up into the faintest of smiles, "You really think so?"

"I really know so," She answered, rubbing her nose against his like the cheesy couple they were.

Riley began crawling off of him and moved to stand up, "So, besides that, how was your day? How was our favorite camper?"

"Oh yes, _Orion_ , I found him in the planetarium again. That kid really loves his space," Farkle answered as he got up to join his girlfriend on her way out to the kitchen.

Riley sat at the island as Farkle went to go make himself some dinner. "You want anything?" He asked as he got out the smoked ham for his sandwich.

"No, I'm ok, I grabbed something on the way home," Riley answered as she fingered through their mail. "Hey," She began, "What's this?" She asked, referencing the letter addressed to her from someone named Rose Geller.

"Oh that? That old lady from the loft down the hall, you know the really big loft that could fit our apartment and two of her sisters in it, dropped it off like ten minutes before you came home. I think she was hoping to find you," He answered nonchalantly as he made his dinner.

Instead of answering Farkle, Riley turned her full attention to the letter:

 _Dear Ms Matthews from room 206,_

 _I understand that you and your Farkle (forgive me, I don't know your relationship status) are currently going through a rather complicated situation and I just wanted to let you know that there is a friendly face right down the hall._

 _Your mother was my daughter's attorney when she was fined for planting a small community garden in a corner of Central Park last month and when she saw where I lived she asked me if I knew you and she told me your story, I do hope you don't mind that she shared that with me._

 _But I'm just writing to tell you that when I was your age, I went through exact same thing. I was seventeen when I had my first beautiful baby girl, and my life was turned upside down. Except, I didn't have a Farkle, or a family for that matter. All I had was my baby Rowan and somehow I worked my way up to being a successful boutique owner and now I have been able to retire more than comfortably. Oh look at me, getting off track! The point is, I know you don't need an old fart like me to give you advice or to hang around with for a cup of tea, but, if you ever want to, I'm always available for a good chat. Remember, I once just as terrified as I assume you are right now._

 _Best of luck,_

 _Ms Rose Geller_

"What does it say?" Farkle tore Riley away from her letter, and her thoughts.

Her eyes shot up to where he was looking at her, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "I don't know, apparently she knows my mom because, well, let's face it, who doesn't? But I guess my mom told her about my pregnancy and apparently she was seventeen when she had her first child so she just wanted to reach out to me, isn't that so sweet?"

Farkle smiled before taking a bite of his sandwich, "Yeah, it is. I guess there are still good people in this world."

"Yeah," Riley said absentmindedly as she traced the lettering on the letter, "I guess there are."


End file.
